Introducing the spoon was a completely new challenge. I will be honest: at one point, I simply forced it. Let me explain. Everyone (and I mean everyone!) will tell you to never ever force feed your child. And I fully agree! It can make your baby hate the feeding time

After the video fluoroscopic swallowing exam (VFSE) and encouragement by PaedDr. Barbora Bunová in Skalica (Slovakia), there was nothing else to be done but to induce hunger. I had to make Emanuela hungry somehow. And make her realize that what she is feeling can be satiated by eating. I started

Emanuela was seven months old when she first came home from the hospital. She was tolerating the pacifier in her mouth. She was sucking, but not swallowing. So, once at home, I started her feeding training from scratch. I started with orofacial stimulation - massaging her face in a sequence

Emanuela was born with a single ventricle heart, transposition of great arteries and stenosis of pulmonary arteries. Like almost every other baby with a congenital heart defect we have seen during seven months of her hospitalization, she was given a feeding tube down her nose at the very beginning. I

As advised and taught in the hospital, the first step was what they called orofacial stimulation. The idea behind it is massaging the child's face in a sequence of moves, just before the feed. It is supposed to trigger the primal instincts of opening the mouth, sucking and